portugal Tom Fazio Goes Global
Tom Fazio has agreed to design his first golf course in Europe, a move that may turn out be the first step in a campaign of world domination.
The course will take shape on a huge expanse of waterfront property along Portugal’s Alentejo coast, as part of a massive resort community called Herdade da Comporta. The community's developers and Portuguese golf officials hope that Fazio’s course, Comporta Links, will be the host venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup.
“I genuinely believe we have the opportunity to build something special here,” Fazio said in an interview with Scottish Golf View. “Something that will still be around long after we’ve all gone.”
The commission is a significant departure for Fazio, who's never strayed far from his home in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Over the course of his 40-year career, he's designed close to 200 courses -- including a dozen or so that routinely pop up on world's-best lists -- and unquestionably become one of the most famous golf designers of our time. He might have become the hands-down number one if he'd been willing to hit the road with the zest of Jack Nicklaus.
“I have probably built about 150 courses within two hours of my home,” said Fazio. “There was no need to travel, but now there’s no reason to stay home, which is why I’m here at Comporta and why we’ll probably do other overseas projects in the future.”
For the record, Fazio has designed courses in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, Puerto Rico, and Panama. They're foreign countries, to be sure, but not quite foreign enough to dish out extreme cases of culture shock.
Now that his children have grown -- one of them is the president of his design firm -- Fazio is apparently ready to spread his wings and start building his “look hard, play easy” courses all over the planet. Word has it that he's talking with developers about projects in Asia and South America.
Herdade da Comporta is being developed by Espirito Santo Group, a conglomerate that controls Portugal’s second-largest bank, Banco Espirito Santo. The company owns several golf courses in suburban Lisbon, including the 36-hole Ribagolfe complex and Quinta do Peru Golf & Country Club. Espirito Santo has also commissioned David McLay Kidd to build a course at Herdade da Comporta.
Curiously, Comporta Links isn't a solo project for Fazio. It's a co-design with Ross McMurray of European Golf Design.
The reason may be that EGD is partly owned by the PGA European Tour, which will select the venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup. Portugal is competing against France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain for the prized event, and it probably figures it never hurts to have an ace up your sleeve.
india Will DLF Build Goa's Golf Course?
India's biggest, most powerful developer is vying for the right to build a golf course in northern Goa.
Tourism officials in the state announced last week that New Delhi-based DLF, Ltd. has submitted a proposal to build a golf course and related “tourist facilities” -- including a hotel, presumably -- on a site in Paliem-Pernem. DLF, which reportedly owns 3,000 acres in suburban New Delhi, is controlled by Kushal Pal Singh, who ranks #74 on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people. Net worth: $9 billion.
DLF's main competition will be Leading Hotels of the World, which aims to build its golf course in Tiracol-Pernem. New York City-based Leading Hotels has ultra-exclusive lodging in 80 countries, and some of its properties are part of golf resorts, but I can't determine if it owns any golf courses.
Goa's tourism officials say they've also received a third proposal, from an unnamed group, but suggested that it wasn't a serious contender.
DLF is probably best known as the developer of DLF City, the mini-metropolis that helped to make Gurgaon, a southwestern suburb of New Delhi, the industrial and financial center of Haryana. DLF City is home to one of India’s top golf courses, an Arnold Palmer-designed track at DLF Golf & Country Club, and last year DLF hired Gary Player to design the community's second golf course.
Goa's government haven't said when the winner will be selected.
“A committee will go through the details and take it ahead from there,” the state's tourism director told the Times of India.
australia Graham Marsh Does a Site Visit
Last year Graham Marsh agreed to design a golf course for a small resort community on Queensland’s central coast, and last week he got his first look at the site.
The Gladstone Observer reports that Marsh “was impressed with what he saw” and believes his course has “the potential not only to be the best in Central Queensland but also Queensland.”
The 18-hole, championship-length track will be the featured attraction of a community that's being developed by a group of local businessmen operating as the Boyne Tannum Trust. The trust takes its name from the towns of Boyne Island and Tannum Sands, which are located across from each other along the western and eastern shores of the Boyne River. The combined population of the towns, which are roughly 15 miles south of Gladstone, is about 10,000.
Besides Marsh's golf course, the community will include some golf course houses, riverfront townhouses, apartments, and villas for retirees, along with an aquatic center and a shopping area.
Marsh, who’s based in Robina, Queensland, has designed two courses in China, including Suzhou Taihu International Golf Course in Suzhou, and two in the United States, including Sutton Bay Golf Club in Pierre, South Dakota. The trust hopes his course in Boyne Tannum will open in 2014.
dubai The $50 Million Man
It turns out that the amount Tiger Woods supposedly got for designing his golf course in Dubai -- $10 million -- was off by a factor of five.
Last week the Guardian reported that Woods has in fact received more than $50 million for his work on now-suspended golf course.
The paper, citing a report in Arabian Business, says that Woods received more than $26 million in 2006, when he agreed to design the course at Tiger Woods Dubai. At the time, you'll remember, it was widely speculated that Woods was getting $25 million for the job.
In addition, the Guardian says, Woods received another $26 million in the summer of 2008 -- just weeks before the financial world collapsed -- when he renegotiated his contract. As part of the deal, he gave up the lot he was to receive in the community.
According to Arabian Business, Woods would have received even more money if Tiger Woods Dubai had come to life. He was set to get a $14.6 million appearance fee when the community officially opened and almost $29 million for designing a second 18-hole course for Tatweer, the group that was developing the community.
I'm sure that Woods would have liked to design the golf course in the community that was named after him. But that $52 million certainly cushions the blow.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
worth reading Island Paradise
A few weeks ago, the Washington Post checked in with a fun, informative feature on Hainan Island and its increasingly controversial transformation into “the Hawaii of the East.”
The island, says the newspaper, has experienced “a 12-month frenzy of construction -- lavish resorts, seaside villas, spas, and a helicopter landing pad, still being built, for well-heeled visitors with no time to waste.”
And yes indeed, golf construction has been part of the frenzy. The Post says that 26 courses are currently operating, 70 more are under construction, and “as many as 300” could eventually be built.
The paper also offers an interesting factoid about Mission Hills Haikou, which it says “will boast 10 courses and 162 holes.” Sounds like eight 18-hole tracks and a pair of nines.
But is there a dark side to the golf development, or at least a dirty little secret?
“No golf course has actually earned money,” a fellow named Liu Futang tells the paper. “Few of them have people coming to play.”
I don't know how authoritative Futang is -- he's described as “a former chief of Hainan's Forest Fire Prevention Bureau” -- but if what he says is true, you've got to wonder how many of those 300 planned courses will actually come out of the ground.
Then again, the health of the golf business may be the least of Hainan Island's potential troubles.
“The dizzying pace of construction,” says the Post, “has forced thousands of indigenous farmers off their land, driven property prices up tenfold and higher, and has many residents asking the question: How much development is too much?”
The island, says the newspaper, has experienced “a 12-month frenzy of construction -- lavish resorts, seaside villas, spas, and a helicopter landing pad, still being built, for well-heeled visitors with no time to waste.”
And yes indeed, golf construction has been part of the frenzy. The Post says that 26 courses are currently operating, 70 more are under construction, and “as many as 300” could eventually be built.
The paper also offers an interesting factoid about Mission Hills Haikou, which it says “will boast 10 courses and 162 holes.” Sounds like eight 18-hole tracks and a pair of nines.
But is there a dark side to the golf development, or at least a dirty little secret?
“No golf course has actually earned money,” a fellow named Liu Futang tells the paper. “Few of them have people coming to play.”
I don't know how authoritative Futang is -- he's described as “a former chief of Hainan's Forest Fire Prevention Bureau” -- but if what he says is true, you've got to wonder how many of those 300 planned courses will actually come out of the ground.
Then again, the health of the golf business may be the least of Hainan Island's potential troubles.
“The dizzying pace of construction,” says the Post, “has forced thousands of indigenous farmers off their land, driven property prices up tenfold and higher, and has many residents asking the question: How much development is too much?”
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
india The Odd Couple
Kelly Blake Moran has designed golf courses in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, and now he’s moving into India.
The Blandon, Pennsylvania-based architect has entered into what he calls “an internet marriage” with an Indian entrepreneur, Ashish Vaishnava, and their first offspring will be a nine-hole golf course and a practice center somewhere in northern India. The course will be part of a community whose underground parking lot will be located beneath the golf course.
Construction could start early this year.
Vaishnava, the principal of New Delhi-based AV Golf, reports in his bio that he’s been involved in the construction of three golf courses in India (including Cambay Golf Course, a lighted, executive-length, nine-hole track in Gandhinagar, in the state of Gujarat) and “knows the game and its business like the back of his hand.”
As of late 2010, the partners hadn’t had a face-to-face meeting, but Moran says they’ve developed a good rapport and have also bid on a project with an 18-hole layout.
The Blandon, Pennsylvania-based architect has entered into what he calls “an internet marriage” with an Indian entrepreneur, Ashish Vaishnava, and their first offspring will be a nine-hole golf course and a practice center somewhere in northern India. The course will be part of a community whose underground parking lot will be located beneath the golf course.
Construction could start early this year.
Vaishnava, the principal of New Delhi-based AV Golf, reports in his bio that he’s been involved in the construction of three golf courses in India (including Cambay Golf Course, a lighted, executive-length, nine-hole track in Gandhinagar, in the state of Gujarat) and “knows the game and its business like the back of his hand.”
As of late 2010, the partners hadn’t had a face-to-face meeting, but Moran says they’ve developed a good rapport and have also bid on a project with an 18-hole layout.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
The Week That Was: February 6, 2011
dubai The End of the Dream
While it may not be completely, officially, you-can-stick-a-fork-in-it dead, it's become apparent that the much-ballyhooed, Tiger Woods-designed golf course in Dubai won't be built anytime soon.
The course's developer, blaming “market conditions that do not support high-end luxury real estate,” announced this week that it currently has no plans to resume construction of the long-delayed course. Though it suggested that work on the course could resume in the future -- hey, things change -- it's clear that Woods' course has become yet another victim of the Great Recession.
“It's been put on hold for right now,” Woods told the Associated Press. “We've got six completed holes and a few that were about to be grassed before construction was halted. Everything is on hold.”
The golf course was to be the featured attraction of Tiger Woods Dubai, an ultra-expensive community that was master-planned to have 22 palaces, 75 mansions, 100 villas, a boutique hotel, and a high-end shopping area. The cheapest house was priced at about $11 million, and no, none of them have been built.
The site is now a veritable ghost town. The golf course, called Al Ruwaya Golf Club, should have opened in the fall of 2009.
Tiger Woods Dubai was supposed to be part of a huge desert spread known as Dubailand, which is also dying a slow death. Dubailand's main draws were to be a collection of theme parks -- Universal Studios, Legoland, Six Flags -- none of which have been built.
Tiger Woods Dubai's developer, Dubai Properties Group, is an affiliate of Dubai Holding, a cash-strapped, government-controlled entity. AP says that Dubai Holding “is deeply in debt and has been locked in talks with creditors to renegotiate the terms of its liabilities.”
Real estate values in Dubai hit their peak in mid 2008 and have fallen by about half since then.
dubai Architect for Hire
You think Jack Nicklaus charges too much -- still $2 million or so -- to design a “signature” golf course?
Tiger Woods was paid an eye-popping $10 million to design his unfinished course in Dubai, according to a report from Arabian Business. And on top of his design fee, he was to receive royalties on the sale of the pricey villas ($11 million), mansions ($15 million), and palaces (don't even ask) that were to surround his course.
Arabian Business also says that Woods planned to build a mansion -- 16,500 square feet, with a gym, a theater, a library, and a pool -- beside his course.
While $10 million is a lot of scratch, and a crazy-large sum for a first-time designer, it's a far cry from the $25 million that Woods was rumored to be getting for the work.
I'm wondering how much of the $10 million went to Woods’s design partner, Beau Welling.
mexico Will Punta Brava Debut in 2012?
A reporter for Forbes says that Tiger Woods' golf course in Mexico, which hasn't yet broken ground, is “on track to open in the second half of 2012.”
The course is to be the centerpiece of Punta Brava, an ultra high-end private community that's apparently still going to be built on 264 acres just south of Ensenada, 65 miles south of San Diego, California. The rest of Punta Brava (“Wild Point”) was originally planned, back in 2008, to consist of 40 estate lots, 80 villas, a 20-villa private hotel, an ocean club, a wellness center, and a spa. The lots were to range in price from $3 million to $12 million.
Woods’ 6,835-yard golf course will take shape on a rocky peninsula that extends seven miles into the Pacific Ocean, off the western coast of Baja California. Brian Tucker, one of the project's developers, said in an e-mail to Kurt Badenhausen that 17 of the course's holes will be located on or adjacent to the ocean and that golfers will need to play “over half a dozen shots” over water. He also said that he and his partners were creating “something special –- a true golf club -– not just another real estate development with golf.”
Punta Brava is being developed by Flagship Group, a firm co-founded by Brady Oman and Hal Jones. The group's partners include “Red” McCombs, a co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, a long-time member of the Forbes 400, and a former owner of the Minnesota Vikings, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Denver Nuggets.
The course was originally scheduled to open this year. Tucker blamed the construction delay on difficulties involved in securing environmental permits, but he says the permits are now in hand.
The developers haven't yet begun to sell the community's lots. According to Tucker,
“After the course is open, the club will have a real estate offering, but when it does, it will only be to the members.”
united states The Low-Down on High Carolina
Despite having sold only 42 lots, the developer of Cliffs at High Carolina says he's still “fully committed” to building the community's Tiger Woods-designed golf course.
“We've invested $150 million in this project, so we are fully committed, and Tiger is fully committed to seeing this through to completion,” Jim Anthony told the Asheville Citizen-Times.
The bad news: the construction won't wrap up anytime soon.
Anthony told the paper that he now hopes to open the course in 2013. Last year he said he was shooting for late 2011 or 2012, already a delay from the original construction schedule.
Anthony also provided a construction update, as he said that “the mass grading [of five holes and the driving range] are two-thirds complete.”
Anthony has been selling lots in Cliffs at High Carolina since 2008. At build-out, the 3,000-acre community in Swannanoa, an eastern suburb of Asheville, is supposed to have up to 1,200 houses.
Don't fret, though. The news from North Carolina is still better than the news from Dubai.
While it may not be completely, officially, you-can-stick-a-fork-in-it dead, it's become apparent that the much-ballyhooed, Tiger Woods-designed golf course in Dubai won't be built anytime soon.
The course's developer, blaming “market conditions that do not support high-end luxury real estate,” announced this week that it currently has no plans to resume construction of the long-delayed course. Though it suggested that work on the course could resume in the future -- hey, things change -- it's clear that Woods' course has become yet another victim of the Great Recession.
“It's been put on hold for right now,” Woods told the Associated Press. “We've got six completed holes and a few that were about to be grassed before construction was halted. Everything is on hold.”
The golf course was to be the featured attraction of Tiger Woods Dubai, an ultra-expensive community that was master-planned to have 22 palaces, 75 mansions, 100 villas, a boutique hotel, and a high-end shopping area. The cheapest house was priced at about $11 million, and no, none of them have been built.
The site is now a veritable ghost town. The golf course, called Al Ruwaya Golf Club, should have opened in the fall of 2009.
Tiger Woods Dubai was supposed to be part of a huge desert spread known as Dubailand, which is also dying a slow death. Dubailand's main draws were to be a collection of theme parks -- Universal Studios, Legoland, Six Flags -- none of which have been built.
Tiger Woods Dubai's developer, Dubai Properties Group, is an affiliate of Dubai Holding, a cash-strapped, government-controlled entity. AP says that Dubai Holding “is deeply in debt and has been locked in talks with creditors to renegotiate the terms of its liabilities.”
Real estate values in Dubai hit their peak in mid 2008 and have fallen by about half since then.
dubai Architect for Hire
You think Jack Nicklaus charges too much -- still $2 million or so -- to design a “signature” golf course?
Tiger Woods was paid an eye-popping $10 million to design his unfinished course in Dubai, according to a report from Arabian Business. And on top of his design fee, he was to receive royalties on the sale of the pricey villas ($11 million), mansions ($15 million), and palaces (don't even ask) that were to surround his course.
Arabian Business also says that Woods planned to build a mansion -- 16,500 square feet, with a gym, a theater, a library, and a pool -- beside his course.
While $10 million is a lot of scratch, and a crazy-large sum for a first-time designer, it's a far cry from the $25 million that Woods was rumored to be getting for the work.
I'm wondering how much of the $10 million went to Woods’s design partner, Beau Welling.
mexico Will Punta Brava Debut in 2012?
A reporter for Forbes says that Tiger Woods' golf course in Mexico, which hasn't yet broken ground, is “on track to open in the second half of 2012.”
The course is to be the centerpiece of Punta Brava, an ultra high-end private community that's apparently still going to be built on 264 acres just south of Ensenada, 65 miles south of San Diego, California. The rest of Punta Brava (“Wild Point”) was originally planned, back in 2008, to consist of 40 estate lots, 80 villas, a 20-villa private hotel, an ocean club, a wellness center, and a spa. The lots were to range in price from $3 million to $12 million.
Woods’ 6,835-yard golf course will take shape on a rocky peninsula that extends seven miles into the Pacific Ocean, off the western coast of Baja California. Brian Tucker, one of the project's developers, said in an e-mail to Kurt Badenhausen that 17 of the course's holes will be located on or adjacent to the ocean and that golfers will need to play “over half a dozen shots” over water. He also said that he and his partners were creating “something special –- a true golf club -– not just another real estate development with golf.”
Punta Brava is being developed by Flagship Group, a firm co-founded by Brady Oman and Hal Jones. The group's partners include “Red” McCombs, a co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, a long-time member of the Forbes 400, and a former owner of the Minnesota Vikings, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Denver Nuggets.
The course was originally scheduled to open this year. Tucker blamed the construction delay on difficulties involved in securing environmental permits, but he says the permits are now in hand.
The developers haven't yet begun to sell the community's lots. According to Tucker,
“After the course is open, the club will have a real estate offering, but when it does, it will only be to the members.”
united states The Low-Down on High Carolina
Despite having sold only 42 lots, the developer of Cliffs at High Carolina says he's still “fully committed” to building the community's Tiger Woods-designed golf course.
“We've invested $150 million in this project, so we are fully committed, and Tiger is fully committed to seeing this through to completion,” Jim Anthony told the Asheville Citizen-Times.
The bad news: the construction won't wrap up anytime soon.
Anthony told the paper that he now hopes to open the course in 2013. Last year he said he was shooting for late 2011 or 2012, already a delay from the original construction schedule.
Anthony also provided a construction update, as he said that “the mass grading [of five holes and the driving range] are two-thirds complete.”
Anthony has been selling lots in Cliffs at High Carolina since 2008. At build-out, the 3,000-acre community in Swannanoa, an eastern suburb of Asheville, is supposed to have up to 1,200 houses.
Don't fret, though. The news from North Carolina is still better than the news from Dubai.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
poland Coal Comfort
A coal mine in southern Poland is about to find new life as a golf community.
It’s the Szombierki mine in Bytom, a northwestern suburb of Katowice. An affiliate of Armada Development SA owns the 250-acre property, where it plans to build single-family houses, some retail and commercial areas, and an 18-hole golf course that’s been co-designed by Christoph Stadler and Christian Althaus of Munster, Germany-based Stadler Golf Courses.
The most visually arresting element on the property is the mine’s 15-story hoisting tower, which will be transformed into a 50-room hotel with some apartments, office space, a restaurant, stores, and a recreation center. The tower is a protected structure -– the developers call it “a gem of the modernist industrial architecture” -– that can’t be torn down.
Armada purchased the site from the state, and it hopes to acquire more than 500 acres of additional state-owned property in the future. Michael Golis, the company’s primary stockholder, also owns a local Toyota dealership and, perhaps more importantly, the city’s professional soccer team.
Golis broke ground on Bytom Golf Club’s first nine last fall and expects to open it in late 2011. The course’s second nine will take shape on property that’s still being mined, and work on it won’t begin until 2012 or 2013.
Stadler has designed several golf courses in Germany, including 27-hole complexes at Semlin am See Golf Club in Brandenburg and Golf Club Wittenbeck in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
He and another associate, Joachim Reinmuth, have co-designed an 18-hole course for Golfclub Haxterpark, which is under construction in Paderborn. The construction is expected to wrap up in the spring, and the course will likely open next year.
It’s the Szombierki mine in Bytom, a northwestern suburb of Katowice. An affiliate of Armada Development SA owns the 250-acre property, where it plans to build single-family houses, some retail and commercial areas, and an 18-hole golf course that’s been co-designed by Christoph Stadler and Christian Althaus of Munster, Germany-based Stadler Golf Courses.
The most visually arresting element on the property is the mine’s 15-story hoisting tower, which will be transformed into a 50-room hotel with some apartments, office space, a restaurant, stores, and a recreation center. The tower is a protected structure -– the developers call it “a gem of the modernist industrial architecture” -– that can’t be torn down.
Armada purchased the site from the state, and it hopes to acquire more than 500 acres of additional state-owned property in the future. Michael Golis, the company’s primary stockholder, also owns a local Toyota dealership and, perhaps more importantly, the city’s professional soccer team.
Golis broke ground on Bytom Golf Club’s first nine last fall and expects to open it in late 2011. The course’s second nine will take shape on property that’s still being mined, and work on it won’t begin until 2012 or 2013.
Stadler has designed several golf courses in Germany, including 27-hole complexes at Semlin am See Golf Club in Brandenburg and Golf Club Wittenbeck in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
He and another associate, Joachim Reinmuth, have co-designed an 18-hole course for Golfclub Haxterpark, which is under construction in Paderborn. The construction is expected to wrap up in the spring, and the course will likely open next year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
